Thursday, February 8, 2018

The Color Out of Time by Michael Shea (1984)

A modest novel-length pendant to Lovecraft's supreme "The Colour Out of Space" (1927).All the sins of Lovecraft pastiche by Lovecraft's epigones are on display. An alien force that in "The Colour Out of Space" was completely indifferent to mankind and earth becomes for Shea an occasion for good versus evil combat. Can plucky humans thwart the alien menace?Some human monsters have walk-on roles, as they did in J.G. Ballard's early apocalypse novels. Other horrific anatomic consequences foreshadow the rural body-horror of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. Reading this novel may sound like a chore. But Shea played a large role in the literature of Lovecraftismo in the post-1970 period. It is of historical interest for completists to check it off their lists.